Namibia has recorded a decline in the number of road accident fatalities this past festive season compared to previous years.
Fifty-four people died on Namibian roads during the 2022/23 festive season compared to 98 recorded in the 2021/22. Compared to 2021/22; crashes declined by 15.2%, injuries declined by 15% and fatalities declined by 45% respectively. as released by the MVA Fund. The statistics were recorded from 22 November 2022 to 2 January this year.
Statistics released yesterday by the MVA Fund indicate that the Khomas region claimed the highest amount of crashes at 24% followed by Erongo and Otjozondjupa regions at 15% and 13% respectively.
Furthermore, the report indicated that Otjozondjupa had the highest fatality at 15% followed by Oshikoto at 13%.
The number of crashes and fatalities per crash type as reported during the 2022/23 festive season specifies that pedestrian-related crashes were the most frequent crashes with 28% followed by collisions and roll-overs at 27% each. Additionally, 50% of the fatalities resulted from roll-over crashes, followed by collisions at 24% of the fatalities.
Roll-over crashes are one of the most frequent crashes resulting in high fatality rates and the statistics show 86 roll-over crashes and 27 fatalities per region as reported during the 2022/23 festive season.
The Erongo region has recorded 19% of crashes and 15% of fatalities followed by the Khomas region which recorded 12% of crashes and 11% of fatalities.
Kavango West recorded the lowest number of crashes with the highest fatalities percentage of 15%. On the fatalities per age, the statistics show the number of deceased persons per age group as reported during the 2022/23 festive season in contrast to 2021/22 and 2020/21, four children under four years died in an accident compared to six that died last festive season and four in 2020/21.
The 20 to 54 year age bracket recorded the most fatalities.
The report indicated that out of 54 fatalities recorded, 40 were male, 11 were female and three were unknown, which directs that males were the highest number of deceased and injured persons per sex category in contrast to 2021/22.